March 31, 2018

An online multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary program that offers intuitive understanding of the dynamics of the U.S.-Mexico border and the Latino presence in the U.S. is gaining momentum at The University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Dennis Bixler-Márquez, director of Chicano Studies at UTEP, said a new Chicano Studies degree there allows students to learn about U.S.-Mexico economics, culture, history and arts.

Carrie Wilson Morris, a student in the paralegal program at Wilson Community College, was in Raleigh three counties away watching on her office computer as a Wilson attorney discussed his work. As an online student, Marris was accustomed to not being in a classroom. What was new this time is that the action was taking place in real time, at that very moment. She raised her hand, virtually speaking. She typed into the chat box, “Have you ever dealt with a case where the victim was unwilling to give testimony?” “Yes,” the attorney replied, “in a domestic abuse case.”

There is a real buzz around new EdTech companies such as NTOK.io at the moment. They are creating a future vision of global learning and tuition that uses blockchain technology at its core. Although EdTech is in its early stages, it’s likely that education will be disrupted in the same way that FinTech has changed the financial world. Cryptocurrency transactions are made secure by blockchain technology allowing for significant decentralization of finances. In other words, the big banks and governments no longer have power over finances. The blockchain makes all data transactions untraceable, including financial ones. If we extend this idea of secured blockchain currency and data transactions to EdTech, it’s clear to see that this will transform education into something far more democratic.

March 30, 2018

The Connecticut law outlines terms around the way identifiable student information can be used by vendors—anyone from yearbook publishers to niche apps to Google. Privacy advocates and parent groups applaud the new measure for protecting students from targeted advertising and requiring notification when data breaches occur. But some education leaders say the law is difficult to comply with and does not take into account the many different kinds of student data.

Students recently completed such curriculum during scheduled and weather-related work-from-home days this academic year. Courses included media bias, personal finance, CPR, first aid and bicycle safety. The curriculum is not required by any state or federal education mandates, but Superintendent Will Schofield said “this is something the board has said is important.” It’s also a way to keep students engaged in learning when, for example, tropical storms and snowstorms blow through the region, as they did this school year, forcing closures. “That’s precious learning time lost,” Schofield said.

IBM kicked off its Think 2018 conference today with a bombshell announcement: It has made the world’s smallest computer, and it’s designed from the ground up to work with the blockchain. The computer itself is smaller than a single grain of salt, coming in at 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter and reportedly has about the same computing power as a 1990s era CPU. “The world’s smallest computer is an IBM-designed edge device architecture and computing platform that is smaller than a grain of salt will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and can monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data,” IBM claims. “It packs several hundred thousand transistors into a footprint barely visible to the human eye and can help verify that a product has been handled properly throughout its long journey.”

March 29, 2018

by Claudia Beib, Futurism
The city of Atlanta has been hacked. On the morning of March 22, a remote ransomware attack trapped the city’s data behind an encrypted wall that will only be lowered if the city coughs up a $51,000 ransom, paid out in bitcoin. But five days in, the effects are profound, crippling some of the city’s critical functions. As of March 27, city employees remain without email or internet access; residents cannot pay their electric bills; wi-fi is shut down at the Atlanta International Airport; and many departments — including the city jail — “are running on pen and paper while there is no access to electronic records for municipal court,” according to a report from Georgia Public Broadcasting, NPR reports.

In the twenty-first century classroom, learning is no longer teacher-directed. Students are beginning to feel more ownership for their learning, allowing them to interact with course material instead of simply trudging through direct instruction and handfuls of physical material. Google HyperDocs are digital documents that contain all elements of a learning cycle in a central location. Within a single document, students have access to hyperlinks to all resources necessary to complete the activities within that unit of instruction. The following are ways in which HyperDocs can help enhance your teaching at any educational level.

Technology in the classroom is more than just a trend—it offers countless benefits for both students and educators. Edtech can increase student engagement, foster collaboration, help teachers personalize learning, allow for creativity and gamification, teach students 21st century skills, and more. It also speeds up grading and aids in classroom management, freeing up teachers’ time to focus on their students. With so much power and promise in edtech, it’s important to take full advantage. Here’s how:

March 28, 2018

To get a bead on opportunities in the field of business analytics education, Montclair State University turned to a team of internal data experts to figure out what a new education program should cover — the very same people who would eventually be teaching its courses. In a paper published in 2015 in Information Systems Education Journal, three faculty members described how they used data to map out curriculum for a proposed business analytics program. Development of this kind of program was being undertaken in a highly competitive atmosphere. As the paper noted, graduate and undergraduate programs on business analytics had already been introduced at 130 institutions in just the previous five years. What set this effort apart, however, was its intended emphasis on “competency-based instruction” — if they could pinpoint just what that meant in this context.

Higher ed institutions are facing some serious challenges to stay relevant in a world that is diversifying and changing rapidly. They want to make sure that the experiences they have designed for students will carry the next generation forward to be productive citizens and workers. But institutions’ abilities to keep up in our changing environment have begun to lag to a sufficient degree, such that alternatives to the traditional university are being considered, both by the institutions themselves and by their constituents and colleagues throughout the education sector.

By David Nagel, THE Journal
Generally girls lose interest in STEM careers as they get older. But, according to a new study, small changes at school and at home can have a profound impact on how girls perceive STEM careers, how confident they feel in class and how likely they are to pursue STEM academically and into their careers.

March 27, 2018

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
The only people who seem to want face-to-face meetings and personal phone calls anymore are school principals. Four in five parents consider e-mail the most effective way for schools and districts to communicate with them. While one-third of parents with children across all grade levels say the personal phone call is an efficient way to communicate with them, 72 percent of principals endorse that strategy. When it comes to in-school meetings, the difference of opinion is just as dramatic; at the elementary level, only 45 percent of parents consider face-to-face sessions effective compared to 73 percent of principals; at the middle school level it’s 35 percent of parents compared to 67 percent of principals; and at the high school level it’s 30 percent of parents compared to 58 percent of principals.

Since men hold more jobs in these fields, it’s not surprising that when you browse online learning sites, there tends to be more male teachers in those subjects as well. However, for a woman looking to approach something like STEM or gaming, the impact of seeing a teacher who looks like her cannot be understated. Similar to how representation in media affects how groups of people perceive themselves and are perceived in the world, representation in STEM and gaming plays an important role in motivating women to overcome and fight back against gender-related barriers in their own career journeys.

In education, “gamification” refers to using elements of game play (such as rules, competition, and point scoring) as a teaching tool that increases student engagement and motivation. Gamification can include badges, leaderboards, and any type of educational competition or game. While the concept of gamification isn’t new, the digital tools available to today’s teachers make gamification more innovative and engaging than ever before. Research indicates that gamification helps students develop more positive attitudes toward learning, increases cognitive and social growth, improves attention spans, and more. To ensure your students benefit as much as possible from gamification, try following these best practices for gamification in schools.

March 26, 2018

Similarly, digital badges award students for their achievements, skills, or other positive qualities. It might seem like a digital image of a badge won’t make much difference. But believe it or not, digital badges have the power to transform the way your students view learning and assessment. How? Here are five ways to use digital badges in your classroom:

Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda says the platform had not previously hosted anything similar; more typical fare includes programming, business and English language classes (along with the popular-among-Canadians Mountains 101). But Maggioncalda and his staff had seen the hunger for onramps to tech careers in the reviews visitors had given earlier courses. “People are saying, I know the jobs are going to be in computers and technology, and it’s great to tell me I should get those jobs. But I don’t know how to do that,” he says. “You tell me how I’m supposed to do that with a family and a mortgage.”

Voice-controlled devices are here to stay, and it is time for you to embrace this technology in the classroom. With Amazon Alexa working through the inexpensive Echo Dot using Wi-Fi, you can transform your classroom into an interactive learning space where students are using voice-controlled searches in the classroom the same way they will in their future homes and vehicles. Plus, the kids love it! Here are some of the reasons why teachers are using Amazon Alexa in the classroom and loving it:

March 25, 2018

Teachers often spend many hours at night or on weekends searching the internet for good instructional materials – or just good ideas about how to meld online learning into their classrooms. Sometimes, they consult curation sites that have evaluated these materials; sometimes they just consult other teachers on what they use. The need for reliable evaluation has become more urgent with the flood of new, often free, online materials. These OER – open educational resources – may be good, bad or indifferent. How can school districts or teachers know?

Two University of Maryland biology courses will be among many in the University System of Maryland to offer students free online textbook access next year with the help of a system grant program. BSCI201 and 202, introductory courses in human anatomy and physiology, will use a free, open-source textbook from OpenStax beginning in the fall, said biology professor Sara Lombardi. To make the switch, university lecturers for the courses received a $1,500 grant from the Maryland Open Source Textbook initiative, which offers grants to encourage faculty to utilize open educational resources. The grants were announced March 6.

Makerspace activities are taking over classrooms and turning students and their teachers into makers. Makerspaces encourage hands-on student-driven learning, experimentation, and collaboration. To help you see how possible it is to incorporate makerspace activities into your classroom, here are ten makerspace activities that can fit any grade level and most budgets.